Wednesday, September 25, 2013

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "Teenage News", featuring classic power pop and more. If you enjoy it, be sure to also follow the show on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter!

Artist - Song - Album

Sylvain Sylvain - Teenage News - Sylvain Sylvain

Sylvain Sylvain - Every Boy And Every Girl - Sylvain Sylvain

The Baxters - What Ya Gonna Do - History In 3 Chords: Milwaukee Alternative Bands 1973-1982

In A Hot Coma - I Wanna Stay Up All Night - History In 3 Chords: Milwaukee Alternative Bands 1973-1982

Renowned English folk singer Billy Bragg elaborates on finding a happy medium between emotions and issues, his experience as an old-school artist in the Internet age and Americans' apparent inability to make a decent cup of tea.

Wednesday, September 18, 2013

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "Fly in the Ointment", featuring post-punk, post-punk and, you guessed it, more post-punk. If you like what you hear, be sure to also follow the show on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter.

Artist - Song - Album

Buzzcocks - Love You More - Singles Going Steady

Buzzcocks - Ever Fallen In Love? - Singles Going Steady

Television Personalities - Part Time Punks - Yes Darling, But Is It Art?

Television Personalities - Smashing Time - Yes Darling, But Is It Art?

Saturday, September 14, 2013

Though it's a landmark moment that's now long since passed, before Garry Kasparov was defeated by Deep Blue in 1997, developing a computer that could best a human chess Grandmaster was one of the loftiest goals for generations of programmers and artificial intelligence researchers. The philosophical question at the heart of their quest was whether raw number-crunching power could ever compete with the uniquely human lateral thinking and creativity the game was believed to require and, if so, what kind of future could humanity have. These heady themes are omnipresent in writer-director Andrew Bujalski's new Computer Chess, permeating every conversation, but they ultimately serve more as a backdrop for his peculiar brand of offbeat comedy than the subject of any substantive exploration.

The film takes you back to an unspecified time in the early 1980s, as an oddball assortment of scientists and academics converge on a drab hotel for a weekend-long tournament pitting their chess-playing programs against one another. Though Bujalski has an eye for accuracy in regards to his retro setting, from the dorky clothes to the charmingly clunky computers, the film departs from reality fairly quickly, following the surreal goings-on between matches, including run-ins with paranoid drug peddlers, the kooky couples therapy retreat also utilizing the conference room, and a sentient, suicidal machine. None of these subplots are pursued with any real zeal, the hotel's mysterious cat infestation or the Pentagon's interest in the competition leaving a lot of intentionally unanswered questions.

Computer Chess won't appeal to every taste, the humor being of the supremely awkward, stuttering sort that earned Bujalski, director of Funny Ha Ha and Beeswax, recognition as the father of mumblecore, and its look, a grainy (mostly) black-and-white video appropriate to the era it's depicting without going full-on mockumentary, is purposefully cheap and sometimes feels more like an aesthetic exercise than a movie, but it's not without its own goofy appeal, which lies mostly in the convincing performances from perfectly cast unknown actors and the light, dreamlike feel. It's quirky strangeness, its technophile nostalgia and, at 90 minutes, its relative brevity, should serve it well once it hits Netflix, but as theatre fare, it's probably not worth leaving the house for.

Wednesday, September 11, 2013

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "Your Little Something Sweet", featuring indie pop, alt rock and a special visit from Juiceboxxx! As always, if you enjoy it, be sure to also find the show on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter!

Artist - Song - Album

Sexy Water Spiders - Black Gold - Black Gold

Sexy Water Spiders - Bad Boys By The River Bed - Black Gold

Dark Chocolate Chips - Fat Mama Kick - Salut

Chocolate Chips - Pure Gold - Salut

The Fatty Acids - Girls And Gods - Boléro

The Fatty Acids - Flamingo Graveyard - Boléro

Dinosaur Feathers - New Frontier - Torrential Zen

Sat. Nite Duets - Conjugal Visit - Torrential Zen

The Pharmacy - Where Do You Run To? - Stoned And Alone

The Pharmacy - Pines - Stoned And Alone

Teenage Moods - Sugar Band - 7" Single

Teenage Moods - Flower Hunting - 7" Single

Dead Waves - Lost Again - Kill The Youth EP

Dead Waves - Happy - Kill The Youth EP

The Pandoras - It Felt Alright - Stop Pretending

JEFF The Brotherhood - Bummer - Single

Best Coast - Sunny Adventure - Single

King Tuff - Hit & Run - King Tuff

King Tuff - Swamp Of Love - King Tuff

B L A C K I E...All Caps, With Spaces - War Child - B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces Discography

B L A C K I E...All Caps, With Spaces - False Marriages - Gen

B L A C K I E...All Caps, With Spaces - Stay Up - B L A C K I E All Caps, With Spaces Discography

Wednesday, September 4, 2013

Here's the playlist for this week's edition of Mondo Radio, which you can download or stream here. This episode: "The People in the World", featuring funk sounds from American and abroad. If you dig it, be sure to also follow the show on Facebook, Tumblr and Twitter!